Au Revoir
by misfiresmayhem
Summary: Delphine is returning home to France but not before she says goodbye to a certain someone.


Her bags packed and her car loaded, Delphine was all but ready to hop onto the next flight to Paris. Before she could even consider leaving however, there was one last thing she wished to do. Say goodbye. More specifically say her farewells to one person in particular - Cosima.

Cosima had been her first and only friend she had made in the States other than Dr. Leekie, whom of which she would rather label a cooperative associate than a friend, and had eventually become much more. Cosima evoked so many new feelings, new perceptions and new passions in her that it made her head spin. For her to get up and leave the country, a country that had become like a second home to the blonde, without saying a farewell to Cosima would be the most regrettable decision she could ever make.

She drove over to Cosima's apartment aware that she may not be let in, but she had to atleast try. She couldn't bear not seeing Cosima for one final time. If this was her last chance to she her, she would without a doubt, without hesitation make the best of it.

Her mission, if you would call it that, when she arrived in the US with colleges from the Dyad Institue was to be a monitor. Of what, she was not told at first. But as soon as it became clear she would be the watcher of a human clone, Delphine couldn't resist. As a scienctist the prospect of this experiment excited her, thriled her even. It was a once in a lifetime opportuinity. Literally. Of course she did have moral reservations. The cloning of bateria had long been a accepted study but human cloning wasn't. It was a government secret. A investigation hidden from the general public.

How could she monitor the life of an oblivious human clone?

Of course her enthusiasm for the study won over her moral conscience and soon she had found her self stationed at the University of Minnesota where she would pose as a fellow student to the subject she was to observe. She had never for the life of her, for one second thought it possible to end up falling for her female subject. But she had. Furthermore it had been the most confounding feeling she had ever been experienced.

She hadn't meant to fall for her, she wasn't supposed to but against all the odds, she had. And it had absoultuely terrified her. Her work with Dr. Leekie and the institute would be at risk and her contribution to the study would had be all for nothing had she resumed her relationship with her subject. In the end, it didn't even matter to her anymore. Cosima had integrated herself unbeknownst into becoming Delphine's whole world. Other than science, she had little else in her life and Cosima certainly had changed all that. Her family were mostly all alive and living in and around the capital of France and so without working with the Dyad Insitutue her best shot at a normal life, without Cosima by her side, would be to return to France and to be reunited with her family.

After a while of driving around, completely adrift in her thoughts, she had arrived at her desination. Turning off the engine, she sat there slumped in the drivers seat for a moment longer then necessary sighing and running her hand through her expertly curled hair before exiting her vehicle. As she ascended the stairs the beat of her heart began to speed up. She felt it beat so rapidly she was sure it could be heard from miles away.

Knocking gentley on the door in front of her Delphine proceeded to rock back and forth of the heels of her shoes. She was noticeably nervous and the familiar sound of ever approching footsteps only heightened her anxiety.

The door swung open.

"Delphine?" Sarah questioned as she answered the door, much to Dephine's dismay.

"Sarah?" Delphine retorted as equally confused as her counter part. Although this was their first official face-to-face meeting Delphine had remembered her name from the time she had regrettably snooped through Cosima's files. How could she forget the only clone to concieve a natural human child?

Delphine inspected the apartment from her current position. Cosima was sitting at her desk with another clone, one Delphine identified as Alison Hendrix, smoking and chatting but she had since turned her head around to face the French woman after hearing Sarah pronounce her name in the doorway.

"Delphine..." It rolled off Cosima's tongue so sweetly and innoncently, as if the most sinful action in their relationship had been the formal french greeting they had done after they had stolen wine from Dr. Leekie's seminar.

"Ma chérie, may I please come in, I have to speak with you" The French woman lightly pleaded.

When Cosima invited her in and instructed Sarah to allow her to pass Delphine did not miss the glare Sarah had directed at her. She had expected as much. It was common knowledge now amoungst the clones that Delphine had worked very closely with Dr. Leekie and that she been the one to expose them to him as part of her work in the study.

"Can we talk in private?" She asked.

"Anything you wanna say to Cos, you can say in front of the rest of us frenchie" Sarah interjected proctectively.

Delphine was slightly stunned. She had not expected the reaction she provoked from Sarah. The clones weren't geneticly identical and each had been modified in various different ways, so in a way they weren't imprints of each other but rather like siblings but still due to the nature of their inception she would expect the clones would share the same ideals. She didn't expect them to be protective of each other but rather only themselves.

Delphine glanced back to Cosima and she lightly nodded, encouraging her to follow Sarah's orders.

"Que vous le souhaitez." She inhaled sharply, she had hoped to speak with Cosima alone so her goodbye could more intimate, more personal. "As you know, I left Dyad. I no longer harbour connections with Monsieur Leekie or the institute."

Cosima was now standing, just a few feet away from her but not close enough. She took a step foward and her breath caught when Cosima glanced at her lips before adverting her eyes to the floor.

"What I am trying to say, ma chérie, is that I am leaving. I am returning to France and I could not leave without seeing you again one last time."

The whole situation with the clones had worked itself out. For now at least. Leekie had been forced by an unknown higher power to relinquish his control on the clones lives to the individual clones, including Helena, and he was only allowed to interfere with the clones if any became violently ill. So the clones, in effect, became people. They were free to live their lives without monitors and without invasive medical testing.

Cosima's head snapped up. She searched Delphine's eyes, questioning whether she was telling the truth or if it was simply a ploy to get them back together. Though Cosima knew, from the moment Delphine had arrived at her apartment that she was not, she could not of been more sincere. Delphine was going to leave the country and it made her heart drop at the realisation.

"So when are you, erm, when do you leave" Cosima struggled. Although she had, for a while, felt completely and utterly betrayed by the blonde for selling herself and the other clones out to a potentially dangerous and untrustworthy man she didn't have it in her to hold the grudge for much longer.

For Cosima had too fell for Delphine. She knew the dangers from the very beginning, the possibilty of a monitor/subject relationship was out of the question but somehow, along the way all warnings were ignored. Before she met Delphine she had relocated to Minnesota from San Francisco, leaving friends and family behind and focused all her time and effort on her studies at the local university. Her social life was non-existent. The only communication with her fellow students was Scott, who she from time to time used to compare DNA samples from herself and the clones when she had become aware of their existence. Delphine was like a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the madness that had invaded her life.

"Today." Delphine bluntly stated. "I just came to say goodbye. So au revoir ma chérie. Remember me."

Delphine leaned forward and kissed the top of Cosima's forehead, just below where her parting lay. Her eyes were firmly shut as were the smaller woman's.

Sarah and Alison shared a glance and silently agreed to leave the two alone in their final moments together. Neither of the other women had noticed when their eyes re-opened.

"Do you really have to go?" It was Cosima who seemed to be pleading now, and truth be it she couldn't bear the thought of Delphine not being apart of her life. Every moment, every look, every laugh, every kiss they had shared would be a distant memory if she left. Her heart seemed to physically ache at the thought of never seeing the beautiful french woman again, a woman she had opened up to new experiences and new feelings. She couldn't let her go now.

Delphine didn't trust herself to speak so she lightly shook her head.

"Then stay. Please. Stay with me Delphine." She no longer cared if she sounded needy because she was, she needed Delphine in her life, by her side and she needed Delphine to need her back.

"I wish I could stay my dear Cosima but there is no place for someone like me here in the States. I must return home." Tears no longer could be held back and they flowed freely from both women's eyes.

Cosima reached forward grasping Delphine's face and pulling it to her's so their lips would meet in a final kiss. Neither woman hurried to pull back, both painfully aware it was most likely their last.

When they finally pulled back, Delphine turned away and headed for the door. Before she went to pull the door open she turned her head around one last time to the shaking figure behind her. Tears stained Cosima's face as they had done months ago when she figured Delphine's true identity out. Although this time it was not out of anger but rather a deeply destroying sadness and loss.

"This won't be the last time we meet, I am sure. But for now, au revoir ma chérie. And remember me." She smiled through tears before opening the door and disappearing through it quickly, as to not give into the urge to go back and comfort her beloved. Before she could even start walking away from the apartment she heard the faint but audible reply to her farewell and couldn't help but smile.

"I won't remember anything else."


End file.
